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ALLAN KORITZINSKY JD IS A RETIRED PARTNER WITH FOLEY & LARDNER LLP IN WISCONSIN. HE CHAIRED OF THE FIRM'S FAMILY LAW TEAM. HE IS CO-AUTHOR OF GAME THEORY & THE TRANSFORMATION OF FAMILY LAW.

Allan R. Koritzinsky is a retired partner with Foley & Lardner LLP where he was a member of the General Commercial Litigation, Tax & Individual Planning and Estates & Trusts Practice Teams. He was also the chair of the law firm’s Family Law Team. As a family law attorney representing individual clients for over 47 years, Mr. Koritzinsky focused on divorce law and alternative dispute resolution. He also worked with colleagues in estate and business planning and real estate transactions. He also had experience in tax, valuation and fiduciary litigation matters. A native of Wisconsin, Mr. Koritzinsky earned his undergraduate degree in history and his law degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is admitted to practice law before the United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, United States Courts of Military Review and Appeals in Washington, D.C., the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Koritzinsky was active in the following professional organizations: Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) (1977- 2009); Diplomat in the American College of Family Trial Lawyers (1977- 2009); Member of the national AAML Board of Governors (1994-1997); former National Chair of the AAML Arbitration Committee and a Past President of the

Academy’s Wisconsin Chapter; former Chair of the Dane County Bar Case Mediation Program; named a Wisconsin Super Lawyer (Law & Politics Media, Inc.)- 2005- 2008; listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for over 25 years. Mr. Koritzinsky was the 2011 recipient of the State Bar of Wisconsin Senior Lawyers Division Leonard L. Loeb Award for “important contributions… made to your clients and to your community through your legal expertise and personal dedication…”

He has lectured in lawyer and judicial continuing education seminars throughout his career and was a Lecturer/Instructor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. While in Viet Nam (1967-1968), he taught full semester courses in Comparative Law and Introduction to American Law at the University of Saigon Law School.

He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including:

• Game Theory & the Transformation of Family Law: Change the Rules, Change the Game

• Divorce Workbook

• Tax Strategies in Divorce

• Family Law Casenotes & Quotes

Articles

Inflection points should not be ignored. In mathematics, there is a concept called the inflection point, which describes the point at which a curve on a graph changes directions. Business has adopted this concept, sometimes known as the strategic inflection point, referring to when a change occurs that requires a business to change direction in order to survive.

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through parental separations and divorce. We next focused on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision making......

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through parental separations and divorce. We next began to focus on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision making.

“The other side wants . . .!” In prior articles we focused on the fact that while people are rational, they can be tricked and on two of the tricks in the traditional family law legal system: legal outcomes are goals; and divorce is a zero sum game.

In Part 1 of this series, we noted that this is a trick question because it distracts people from their life goals and focuses them on legal outcomes, as though they are goals. It is also a trick question because it re-frames a non-zero sum game into a zero sum game.

True or false? People are rational and generally make good choices. Now, consider this. Can they be tricked? Yes! You might remember Monty Hall and “The Price is Right”. At end the of the show, the contestant who had won the most money was shown three doors, behind two of which were some cheap junk but behind one was a big prizemaybe a fancy car.

Why do people do stupid things? Game theory is a branch of mathematics that analyzes how and why people make the choices that they make. Recently, a couple of authors have included game theory in the study of marriage and divorce.

One of the challenges in mediation is that parties usually come to mediation already with a dispute. The training of lawyers and many mediators includes an assumption that the parties are in a dispute.